At a certain point in one’s college career, students like myself might notice lectures on your desired fields can feel redundant.

Even though they might be separate classes, lectures over certain topics are repeated. This, of course, is not the fault of the instructor. You are given a handful of perspectives on these topics that require views from others.

An easy ailment to this problem can be found in sending students abroad whether it is five hours away to a conference, or in an entirely different country for study abroad.

The experiences and knowledge gained from trips like these can’t be quantified.

This weekend, members of our staff took a three-day trip to Philadelphia, Penn., for the College Media Association conference. 

While seeing the city and what it had to offer was one of the most enticing parts of the trip, going to the conference was a refreshing and worthwhile departure from the normal classes offered at Eastern.

Multiple seminars throughout the day gave those who went to it different outlooks on how to approach journalism and the newsroom in general.

Leaving Philadelphia, one of the things that stuck with me was that this was oddly absent from my college experience until now as a senior. Even though it was beneficial, it was almost too late.

Students should be sent to these kinds of conferences frequently throughout their time at Eastern. Every student should have the option to seek knowledge from somewhere other than his or her professors.

Where better and easier might they find this knowledge than at national conferences or in entirely different universities in different countries?

Eastern offers several programs for students to gain access to these experiences. Several conferences are even hosted here such as the Entrepreneurship Conference, which will be hosted next week. The study abroad program also gives students the chance to see different cultures and learn about their field from very different people.

But is that enough? I don’t think an adequate percentage of the student body experiences these types of things throughout the entirety of their college career.

Whether it be by offering more of these things to students in every department or by promoting them more, something should be done to ensure every student can say they got views from other instructors in the country and the world.

I would go as far as saying it should be a requirement for students seeking a diploma. Knowledge from one singular place, wherever that might be, isn’t enough to claim a well-rounded education.